Alden Ehrenreich Solo Image Is Not Official

We learn more about the real story behind our supposed first look at Alden Ehrenreich’s young Han Solo. Star Wars fans were frantic after a collectible movie theater cup seemingly featured an image of the young actor in-character as the franchise’s famed scoundrel. While everything connected to the galaxy far, far away is always a big deal for die-hards, there is significantly more pressure riding on the budding thespian’s upcoming performance in spinoff Solo: A Star Wars Story, especially with Harrison Ford’s impeccable portrayal of the role.

Following a tumultuous production process that involved last-minute director switches and rumored extensive reshoots, Solo has finally wrapped up principal photography. Unfortunately, we still have yet to get any official promotional material from the film, including Ehrenreich as the new Han. So when a cup from Harkins Theaters in Arizona highlighted an image of the 27-year-old looking every bit like Solo, people understandably immediately got excited. Unfortunately, as some speculated, the snap is unofficial and Lucasfilm had nothing to do with the render.

RELATED: STAR WARS NEEDS TO REPLACE THE MILLENNIUM FALCON

Apparently, the merchandise is offered to theater-goers as this year’s version of their Loyalty Cup, which people can bring every single time they visit for discounted drinks. Comic Book reports that Harkins Theaters used the service of artist Landon Armstrong to come up with the design of the cup that also features other popular characters like Deadpool and Guardians of the Galaxy‘s Gamora. The illustrator used Ehrenreich’s face in the previously released cast photo for Solo from earlier this year and attached it to an old promo photo of Ford from The Empire Strikes Back.

It is no secret that Lucasfilm’s newest anthology offering has famously gone through huge setbacks, fueling people’s initial skepticism of choosing a character as perfectly played by Ford and passing the mantle to a brand new star. While there is a good chance that Ehrenreich will crush the role given his brilliant performances in films like the Coen brothers’ Hail, Caesar! and Francis Ford Coppola’s Tetro, the fact of the matter is, it is difficult to remove the image of Ford when you talk about Han Solo. Still, the studio is confident in the standalone and believes it can be a worthwhile addition to canon.

With the project still maintaining its May 2018 release date despite all the complications it has been through in the last several months, we can expect that Lucasfilm will start promoting the movie soon. Perhaps they are only waiting to get Star Wars: The Last Jedi out of the gates first before they finally transition their marketing efforts to Solo: A Star Wars Story.